RP log - Ryoma and Kevin
Feb. 22nd, 2006 09:44 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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tenipuri_xpCharacters: Ryoma, Kevin, and Shadow (sorta).
Date: Sometime during the weekend of the 28/29th January.
Rating: PG-13 for allusions to violence
Summary: Ryoma meets up with his conflictive old friend again. Since Shadow's there and Kevin is still injured, they don't even try to kill each other, and this leads to a quite bitter exchange of ideas.
Pushing open the door to the pet shop and stepping out onto the street, Ryoma tried to glance back as Shadow let loose with a stream of incoherent babbling punctuated here and there with "Mama" and "dog" as he tugged happily on strands of Ryoma's hair. He'd stolen Niou's idea of tucking Shadow into a backpack for the walk, since it'd seemed to work all right; Niou was gone helping Yagyuu move and Ryoma hadn't realized Karupin's food supply was nearly gone until just this morning. He'd had to go shopping, and with no one to babysit, Shadow'd had to come with.
This wasn't meant to be a complicated venture; he hefted the bag of cat food against his chest and set out in the direction of Ryuhana... but his feet slowed and he came to a wary stop as he felt another mutant heading towards him nearly a block away. It wasn't anyone he'd synched, but it felt kind of familiar. And then Ryoma spotted a head of blonde hair bobbing towards him that could only belong to one person: Kevin Smith.
Unlike his usual energetic and hyper self, Kevin was walking very slowly through the streets of the Nakano district, grabbing his injured arm. He was barely able to attend training due to the serious injury he had sustained around a week ago, while trying to defend himself and his friend Takashi Kawamura (his other two selves included) from those mutant haters who used the now-defunct Ichiban Sushi as their HQ and blackmailed the mutant supporters of the area... including Taka's family.
While he could've done it in a somewhat less messy way, Kevin didn't completely regret what he (and Taka, or better said, his Burn side) did to the place. Fuckers. It was bad enough that the major part of humans were their Nemesis, but the bad ones were using violence and blackmail to disuase the few goody-two-shoes ones who did give a crap? No good, bitches, no good! Maybe his grandparents and Emily weren't keen on taking their defense in their own hands, but Kevin definitely was.
Rubbing his injured arm (damn but the bandages were tight, Nanako really went carried away this time), the blond just continued walking, and he almost completely missed the dark-haired youth around his age with an equally dark-haired baby on his back and a bag of cat food in his arms, who wasn't too far away from him. However, Kevin happened to accidentally fix his blue eyes on a car's window, and the images reflected on it gave Ryoma's presence away.
"What the...?"
He slowly turned and saw the other boy. And the baby. Oh, shit, it *was* true after all.
Ryoma sighed - but what else could he do? Kevin had already seen him - them, he corrected himself - and shrugged, nodding to the other since his arms were full. "Hey." Shadow, realizing that Ryoma had stopped trying to turn his head, stuck a piece of Ryoma's hair in his mouth and giggled happily.
Watching Kevin for a moment, it wasn't hard to notice that the blonde was favoring one arm over the other, cradling one against his chest like he'd hurt it or something. It didn't look like he'd just hurt it though... Eyes narrowing, Ryoma shifted his weight and pointed his chin towards Kevin's arm, seeing as his hands were full. "What'd you do?"
There was nowhere to hide, what with being in the middle of the streets instead of in a park like the last time. Kevin now trusted his powers enough not to go BOOM right now... also, he wouldn't be able to fight a lot with an injury like the one he had now. Man, it hurt.
He got closer to the other youth, opened his mouth to start telling Ryoma what the fuck happened to him and Taka just like he asked... but then, a tiny hand grabbed handfuls of his hair and started pulling.
Kevin yelped in shock and stared wide-eyed at the baby boy, who was giggling and looking very satisfied with himself.
"... Shadow!" Ryoma hefted the bag of food to one hand so he could detangle Shadow's fingers from Kevin's hair. Honestly... Apparently Shadow thought blonde hair was shiny; Ryoma took a step back to keep Kevin's hair out of Shadow's reach. "Maybe you shouldn't get so close." Though he was hard-pressed to hide a snicker at Kevin's expression.
"Mama~!" Shadow wailed indignantly. Ryoma sighed. Today was not a good day. He lifted a hand so Shadow could chew on it. This seemed to placate the toddler, so Ryoma turned his attention back to the American. "What were you gonna say?"
Mama? Oh, okay. Kevin still wasn't clear on the details, but Marui's posts had given him at least an idea of what happened and or was done to Ryoma, to explain the apparition of this... baby. He looked and felt scaringly real and alive, though; Kevin wondered if Marui's illusions would emite body heat, and if his eyes would register it. On second thought, he decided not to try.
He walked away from Shadow and his tiny little hands, then heard Ryoma asking what he had done.
"... You want me to tell you *here*, with all of these people around us?," he asked in English. "No way. Let's see where we can talk in peace. And no, I'm not able to use my powers with this fucked-up arm, so... you two are safe."
Ryoma watched bemusedly as Kevin inched away from Shadow, then met his gaze evenly again. It sounded like Kevin wanted privacy; Ryoma shrugged. That was fine with him.
"Fine with me," he replied in English, then pointed down the road with an elbow. "Head that way." There was a public school in that direction, and not many people were likely to be hanging around on a weekend. As he and Kevin set off, he glanced at the other's arm. So it must be injured, and pretty badly at that. He wondered if it was from the same sushiya incident, or something else. He supposed he'd find out soon enough. And if Kevin couldn't hurt him like that, well, all the better.
Shadow didn't easily give up, though. He yet again tried to grab Kevin's blond hair, extending the chubby hand as much as he could, gasping and exerting himself as much as a illusionary baby was capable of. Kevin was reminded of the little siblings of his former companions, and with a small sigh he extended one of his hands and allowed the baby to grab his index finger. Anything to not have him tugging at his hair or crying.
As they reached the school and sat in a nearby bench, Kevin spoke to Ryoma in English, in a quiet yet bitter tone. "I didn't lie a single bit, back then when you commented in my journal. A friend of mine from the Brotherhood told me to check on a suspicious place, and it turns out that the owner was a rabid mutant hater. He was harrassing mutant supporters, threatening and blackmailing them - including my friend's family. The bastard."
"I - I just couldn't stay there, looking at the guy doing that crap. I stood up for the kid and for myself, since he insulted me for being a foreigner as well as a mutant. And one of his assistants... well, I talked back to those fuckers and used my powers to mark my point, then the fight started and one of them stabbed me with a cooking knife. More painful than any injury I had ever sustained in my sports life."
A cold wind blew, and Shadow sneezed. Kevin, just like he had done in the days when the heater was broken at the Brotherhood, used a bit of his power (wincing as his injury felt like burning) to heat the air surrounding the three. Shadow giggled, and Kevin vaguely smiled at him.
"Those bastards," he murmured, letting go of Shadow, who this time just stared at him. "What the hell did we *all* mutants do to deserve that hatred...?"
"You burned down their shop, is what," Ryoma said flatly (in English as well), sighing. Okay, fine. Obviously mutant-haters weren't exactly good things, and he wouldn't ever dream of advocating their cause. After all, they were just stupid, ignorant bastards who were too blind to realize they were just using mutants as scapegoats for the insecurity they felt about their own lives. But burning down their property wasn't exactly his idea of the best way to take care of things, either. But trying to tell that to someone like Kevin wasn't exactly going to work either.
The air around them grew warmer - Ryoma glanced at Kevin, but he was smiling faintly at Shadow, who seemed plenty amused. It must be Kevin's doing, then, but it didn't seem like he wanted to hurt them. Ryoma would synch him and take over, but... well, he'd never synched Kevin before, and never would if he got his way. He was sure he could learn the technique, but he didn't want to risk it.
He sighed, tugging one strap off his shoulder and pulling the backpack around front so he wouldn't squash Shadow by leaning back. "Look. M'not saying what they did was right - but you weren't exactly the picture of justice yourself, y'know," he said finally.
"Did I ever claim that I was?," and Kevin snickered, looking at Ryoma. "Oh, don't go there, boy friend. And it seems you damn misunderstood me."
The blond closed his eyes and sighed even more bitterly. His anger wasn't sizzling in his blood in those very moments... it was sticking to his skin, and turning into more and more frustration.
"When I asked you what did we do to deserve this, Ryoma, I was talking of all us mutants. I don't even recall saying that I didn't have my injury coming... but I'm damn sick and tired of how humans think they're better and treat us mutants like failures. You wouldn't believe all the stories I've heard in the Brotherhood... which, for such a mad house, is the first place I could call 'home' ever."
They still treated him like a child (which he was, technically, as the youngest of the kids there), but he was somewhat used to it already. Taka was the dorky older brother who withstood his childishness better than others; Wakato was the smartass buddy who made him smile; Ohtori was the sweet kid with a hidden bite, and Nanako was incredibly similar to his dead mother. Since Kevin was far away from his biological relatives and even feared to get too close to them in case he brought them problems, they were the closest to a family that he had.
"You say you don't understand me, Ryoma? Well, I can't understand you 'Hanas as a whole. Fighting for humans even when you know 99% of them will slap you to the Moon and back... That's absurd, and it won't work. They'll kill you... and you're still ready to help them?".
The heat was gradually rising around boys and baby, and Ryoma (and Shadow, apparently) started to breath with more difficulty. When Kevin noticed, he forced himself to calm down, and the air came back to a more bereable temperature. But he was biting his lip in frustration, thinking of the mutants who had suffered so much because of those hateful, cruel humans.
"Well then, stop acting like mutants are special or something. It's not like we're the only group of people that's ever been oppressed before." It was so obvious because it was so close to home, but it was foolish for anyone nowadays to think this was some glaringly new issue. It happened - it had happened - and Ryoma was more than sure it was going to happen again in the future.
That didn't mean he condoned it - fuck no, and he wouldn't stand for it. But it was just so hard to argue anything with someone who didn't want to see more than what was in front of their own two eyes.
"I'm not sayin' it's right. But not every single unempowered human out there is out to get us. An' mutants aren't helping matters by proving how dangerous they are, either. There's gotta be effort on both sides, an' I'm not seein' it from a lotta you. Neither side is right." And that was what it came down to. Both sides thought they were right, and justified, and in his opinon there was no issue - people just needed to settle their differences and live with each other. In this case, the differences just happened to manifest as superhuman powers. So what? It was the same as having black skin or blonde hair or Japanese parents.
"I'll get angry at the ones tryin' to kill me - whichever side they're on - when they do it -" He stopped, gasping a bit for breath, realizing it had gotten a lot warmer all of a sudden. He glared at Kevin - but the other apparently realized what he was doing, and eased off as Ryoma caught his breath.
"Well... I suppose I can't make you change your mind. Nor you can make me," the blond replied rather quietly, when the air was back to its normal temeprature. "This is one screwed-up world that will always react strongly to differences, and there'll always be persecution against whoever poses as different... You don't remember the time we met, huh?"
It was in the infirmary of their school, when they were both ten years old. Ryoma was there because of a sudden fever, and few minutes Kevin and a girl from another classroom were brought in, bruised and battered. Kevin had stood up for her when some older guys were bullying the girl for something he didn't even bother to ask about, and as Ryoma waited for his medicine to have effect the Japanese was a witness of how the school nurse took care of the injuured children. Later that day, Ryoma asked Kevin directly what really happened, then asked his name, and their odd sort-of friendship was sealed. Only to be broken few years later.
"No, whether you do or not, it doesn't seem to matter. Even when we used to be somewhat close. Or close enough to have your father asking me through journals why on Earth I didn't stake my claim on you in front of Niou."
"I remember just fine," Ryoma said - Kevin had been standing up for a friend then too, he recalled. This wasn't really something new - it had happened before, even before they'd found out they were mutants. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it could be, but it seemed like Kevin was one of those people who did the wrong thing for the right reasons. And he was probably right - neither of them was likely to change their thinking, or at least not easily.
But then Kevin kept talking, and Ryoma's eyes narrowed at his last statement. "He did what?" If Ryoma knew anything about Kevin, he knew that the blonde boy wasn't one to make up something like that to make Ryoma jealous. He just didn't work that way. So it must be true. "I wasn't aware I was a piece of property people were allowed to claim," he muttered, wondering where the hell his father got off telling Kevin he should've... claimed him? My dad's an idiot." Shadow gurgled happily in agreement.
"I refuse to comment on the latter, but I don't think I need to..."
He lifted a hand to mark his point... and Shadow again reached for his blond hair, managing to only grab Kevin's hand. The American just looked at the baby, who seemed to sense the distress around him. He was reminded of his mother telling him once that babies were incredibly sensitive to their surroundings, and apparently this virtual baby of sorts was no exception.
Again, Kevin smiled somewhat sadly to the tiny child, letting him pull his finger. Then, he looked at Ryoma. "I doubt I have anything else to tell you. If you still remember the basics of who I am, you can deduce what will happen..."
He let go of Shadow, feeling that he should leave. Not only the pain in his arm suddenly raised, making him hiss and instinctively place his hand over it, but... Kevin simply felt he had nothing else to say.
"If the groups decide to fight, Ryoma, just... please don't cross me," he finished, getting up from the bench. Then, Kevin walked away as quickly as the pain allowed him to, not caring about Ryoma's reaction or lack thereof.
Ryoma was about to say something when Kevin got up, apparently deciding they were through, and walked off. He watched the other's retreating back for a moment, thinking about what he'd just said.
"People never change," he decided, glancing down at Shadow, who only seemed distressed that the shiny blonde hair had gone away. Kevin had always had a short temper, and Kevin always would have a short temper. Ryoma just hoped it wasn't supposed to be up to him to keep the American in check - it wasn't his responsibility. But if Kevin went and screwed up human/mutant affairs worse than this, Ryoma just might be forced to find him again.
"Ugh." He stood, slinging the backpack (with Shadow in it) back around his shoulders and picking up the bag of cat food, shivering a little now that the air had cooled down in Kevin's wake. He decided he'd better head back now, before anything else happened. It wasn't as though he didn't have enough to think about on the way back.
Date: Sometime during the weekend of the 28/29th January.
Rating: PG-13 for allusions to violence
Summary: Ryoma meets up with his conflictive old friend again. Since Shadow's there and Kevin is still injured, they don't even try to kill each other, and this leads to a quite bitter exchange of ideas.
Pushing open the door to the pet shop and stepping out onto the street, Ryoma tried to glance back as Shadow let loose with a stream of incoherent babbling punctuated here and there with "Mama" and "dog" as he tugged happily on strands of Ryoma's hair. He'd stolen Niou's idea of tucking Shadow into a backpack for the walk, since it'd seemed to work all right; Niou was gone helping Yagyuu move and Ryoma hadn't realized Karupin's food supply was nearly gone until just this morning. He'd had to go shopping, and with no one to babysit, Shadow'd had to come with.
This wasn't meant to be a complicated venture; he hefted the bag of cat food against his chest and set out in the direction of Ryuhana... but his feet slowed and he came to a wary stop as he felt another mutant heading towards him nearly a block away. It wasn't anyone he'd synched, but it felt kind of familiar. And then Ryoma spotted a head of blonde hair bobbing towards him that could only belong to one person: Kevin Smith.
Unlike his usual energetic and hyper self, Kevin was walking very slowly through the streets of the Nakano district, grabbing his injured arm. He was barely able to attend training due to the serious injury he had sustained around a week ago, while trying to defend himself and his friend Takashi Kawamura (his other two selves included) from those mutant haters who used the now-defunct Ichiban Sushi as their HQ and blackmailed the mutant supporters of the area... including Taka's family.
While he could've done it in a somewhat less messy way, Kevin didn't completely regret what he (and Taka, or better said, his Burn side) did to the place. Fuckers. It was bad enough that the major part of humans were their Nemesis, but the bad ones were using violence and blackmail to disuase the few goody-two-shoes ones who did give a crap? No good, bitches, no good! Maybe his grandparents and Emily weren't keen on taking their defense in their own hands, but Kevin definitely was.
Rubbing his injured arm (damn but the bandages were tight, Nanako really went carried away this time), the blond just continued walking, and he almost completely missed the dark-haired youth around his age with an equally dark-haired baby on his back and a bag of cat food in his arms, who wasn't too far away from him. However, Kevin happened to accidentally fix his blue eyes on a car's window, and the images reflected on it gave Ryoma's presence away.
"What the...?"
He slowly turned and saw the other boy. And the baby. Oh, shit, it *was* true after all.
Ryoma sighed - but what else could he do? Kevin had already seen him - them, he corrected himself - and shrugged, nodding to the other since his arms were full. "Hey." Shadow, realizing that Ryoma had stopped trying to turn his head, stuck a piece of Ryoma's hair in his mouth and giggled happily.
Watching Kevin for a moment, it wasn't hard to notice that the blonde was favoring one arm over the other, cradling one against his chest like he'd hurt it or something. It didn't look like he'd just hurt it though... Eyes narrowing, Ryoma shifted his weight and pointed his chin towards Kevin's arm, seeing as his hands were full. "What'd you do?"
There was nowhere to hide, what with being in the middle of the streets instead of in a park like the last time. Kevin now trusted his powers enough not to go BOOM right now... also, he wouldn't be able to fight a lot with an injury like the one he had now. Man, it hurt.
He got closer to the other youth, opened his mouth to start telling Ryoma what the fuck happened to him and Taka just like he asked... but then, a tiny hand grabbed handfuls of his hair and started pulling.
Kevin yelped in shock and stared wide-eyed at the baby boy, who was giggling and looking very satisfied with himself.
"... Shadow!" Ryoma hefted the bag of food to one hand so he could detangle Shadow's fingers from Kevin's hair. Honestly... Apparently Shadow thought blonde hair was shiny; Ryoma took a step back to keep Kevin's hair out of Shadow's reach. "Maybe you shouldn't get so close." Though he was hard-pressed to hide a snicker at Kevin's expression.
"Mama~!" Shadow wailed indignantly. Ryoma sighed. Today was not a good day. He lifted a hand so Shadow could chew on it. This seemed to placate the toddler, so Ryoma turned his attention back to the American. "What were you gonna say?"
Mama? Oh, okay. Kevin still wasn't clear on the details, but Marui's posts had given him at least an idea of what happened and or was done to Ryoma, to explain the apparition of this... baby. He looked and felt scaringly real and alive, though; Kevin wondered if Marui's illusions would emite body heat, and if his eyes would register it. On second thought, he decided not to try.
He walked away from Shadow and his tiny little hands, then heard Ryoma asking what he had done.
"... You want me to tell you *here*, with all of these people around us?," he asked in English. "No way. Let's see where we can talk in peace. And no, I'm not able to use my powers with this fucked-up arm, so... you two are safe."
Ryoma watched bemusedly as Kevin inched away from Shadow, then met his gaze evenly again. It sounded like Kevin wanted privacy; Ryoma shrugged. That was fine with him.
"Fine with me," he replied in English, then pointed down the road with an elbow. "Head that way." There was a public school in that direction, and not many people were likely to be hanging around on a weekend. As he and Kevin set off, he glanced at the other's arm. So it must be injured, and pretty badly at that. He wondered if it was from the same sushiya incident, or something else. He supposed he'd find out soon enough. And if Kevin couldn't hurt him like that, well, all the better.
Shadow didn't easily give up, though. He yet again tried to grab Kevin's blond hair, extending the chubby hand as much as he could, gasping and exerting himself as much as a illusionary baby was capable of. Kevin was reminded of the little siblings of his former companions, and with a small sigh he extended one of his hands and allowed the baby to grab his index finger. Anything to not have him tugging at his hair or crying.
As they reached the school and sat in a nearby bench, Kevin spoke to Ryoma in English, in a quiet yet bitter tone. "I didn't lie a single bit, back then when you commented in my journal. A friend of mine from the Brotherhood told me to check on a suspicious place, and it turns out that the owner was a rabid mutant hater. He was harrassing mutant supporters, threatening and blackmailing them - including my friend's family. The bastard."
"I - I just couldn't stay there, looking at the guy doing that crap. I stood up for the kid and for myself, since he insulted me for being a foreigner as well as a mutant. And one of his assistants... well, I talked back to those fuckers and used my powers to mark my point, then the fight started and one of them stabbed me with a cooking knife. More painful than any injury I had ever sustained in my sports life."
A cold wind blew, and Shadow sneezed. Kevin, just like he had done in the days when the heater was broken at the Brotherhood, used a bit of his power (wincing as his injury felt like burning) to heat the air surrounding the three. Shadow giggled, and Kevin vaguely smiled at him.
"Those bastards," he murmured, letting go of Shadow, who this time just stared at him. "What the hell did we *all* mutants do to deserve that hatred...?"
"You burned down their shop, is what," Ryoma said flatly (in English as well), sighing. Okay, fine. Obviously mutant-haters weren't exactly good things, and he wouldn't ever dream of advocating their cause. After all, they were just stupid, ignorant bastards who were too blind to realize they were just using mutants as scapegoats for the insecurity they felt about their own lives. But burning down their property wasn't exactly his idea of the best way to take care of things, either. But trying to tell that to someone like Kevin wasn't exactly going to work either.
The air around them grew warmer - Ryoma glanced at Kevin, but he was smiling faintly at Shadow, who seemed plenty amused. It must be Kevin's doing, then, but it didn't seem like he wanted to hurt them. Ryoma would synch him and take over, but... well, he'd never synched Kevin before, and never would if he got his way. He was sure he could learn the technique, but he didn't want to risk it.
He sighed, tugging one strap off his shoulder and pulling the backpack around front so he wouldn't squash Shadow by leaning back. "Look. M'not saying what they did was right - but you weren't exactly the picture of justice yourself, y'know," he said finally.
"Did I ever claim that I was?," and Kevin snickered, looking at Ryoma. "Oh, don't go there, boy friend. And it seems you damn misunderstood me."
The blond closed his eyes and sighed even more bitterly. His anger wasn't sizzling in his blood in those very moments... it was sticking to his skin, and turning into more and more frustration.
"When I asked you what did we do to deserve this, Ryoma, I was talking of all us mutants. I don't even recall saying that I didn't have my injury coming... but I'm damn sick and tired of how humans think they're better and treat us mutants like failures. You wouldn't believe all the stories I've heard in the Brotherhood... which, for such a mad house, is the first place I could call 'home' ever."
They still treated him like a child (which he was, technically, as the youngest of the kids there), but he was somewhat used to it already. Taka was the dorky older brother who withstood his childishness better than others; Wakato was the smartass buddy who made him smile; Ohtori was the sweet kid with a hidden bite, and Nanako was incredibly similar to his dead mother. Since Kevin was far away from his biological relatives and even feared to get too close to them in case he brought them problems, they were the closest to a family that he had.
"You say you don't understand me, Ryoma? Well, I can't understand you 'Hanas as a whole. Fighting for humans even when you know 99% of them will slap you to the Moon and back... That's absurd, and it won't work. They'll kill you... and you're still ready to help them?".
The heat was gradually rising around boys and baby, and Ryoma (and Shadow, apparently) started to breath with more difficulty. When Kevin noticed, he forced himself to calm down, and the air came back to a more bereable temperature. But he was biting his lip in frustration, thinking of the mutants who had suffered so much because of those hateful, cruel humans.
"Well then, stop acting like mutants are special or something. It's not like we're the only group of people that's ever been oppressed before." It was so obvious because it was so close to home, but it was foolish for anyone nowadays to think this was some glaringly new issue. It happened - it had happened - and Ryoma was more than sure it was going to happen again in the future.
That didn't mean he condoned it - fuck no, and he wouldn't stand for it. But it was just so hard to argue anything with someone who didn't want to see more than what was in front of their own two eyes.
"I'm not sayin' it's right. But not every single unempowered human out there is out to get us. An' mutants aren't helping matters by proving how dangerous they are, either. There's gotta be effort on both sides, an' I'm not seein' it from a lotta you. Neither side is right." And that was what it came down to. Both sides thought they were right, and justified, and in his opinon there was no issue - people just needed to settle their differences and live with each other. In this case, the differences just happened to manifest as superhuman powers. So what? It was the same as having black skin or blonde hair or Japanese parents.
"I'll get angry at the ones tryin' to kill me - whichever side they're on - when they do it -" He stopped, gasping a bit for breath, realizing it had gotten a lot warmer all of a sudden. He glared at Kevin - but the other apparently realized what he was doing, and eased off as Ryoma caught his breath.
"Well... I suppose I can't make you change your mind. Nor you can make me," the blond replied rather quietly, when the air was back to its normal temeprature. "This is one screwed-up world that will always react strongly to differences, and there'll always be persecution against whoever poses as different... You don't remember the time we met, huh?"
It was in the infirmary of their school, when they were both ten years old. Ryoma was there because of a sudden fever, and few minutes Kevin and a girl from another classroom were brought in, bruised and battered. Kevin had stood up for her when some older guys were bullying the girl for something he didn't even bother to ask about, and as Ryoma waited for his medicine to have effect the Japanese was a witness of how the school nurse took care of the injuured children. Later that day, Ryoma asked Kevin directly what really happened, then asked his name, and their odd sort-of friendship was sealed. Only to be broken few years later.
"No, whether you do or not, it doesn't seem to matter. Even when we used to be somewhat close. Or close enough to have your father asking me through journals why on Earth I didn't stake my claim on you in front of Niou."
"I remember just fine," Ryoma said - Kevin had been standing up for a friend then too, he recalled. This wasn't really something new - it had happened before, even before they'd found out they were mutants. Maybe it wasn't as bad as it could be, but it seemed like Kevin was one of those people who did the wrong thing for the right reasons. And he was probably right - neither of them was likely to change their thinking, or at least not easily.
But then Kevin kept talking, and Ryoma's eyes narrowed at his last statement. "He did what?" If Ryoma knew anything about Kevin, he knew that the blonde boy wasn't one to make up something like that to make Ryoma jealous. He just didn't work that way. So it must be true. "I wasn't aware I was a piece of property people were allowed to claim," he muttered, wondering where the hell his father got off telling Kevin he should've... claimed him? My dad's an idiot." Shadow gurgled happily in agreement.
"I refuse to comment on the latter, but I don't think I need to..."
He lifted a hand to mark his point... and Shadow again reached for his blond hair, managing to only grab Kevin's hand. The American just looked at the baby, who seemed to sense the distress around him. He was reminded of his mother telling him once that babies were incredibly sensitive to their surroundings, and apparently this virtual baby of sorts was no exception.
Again, Kevin smiled somewhat sadly to the tiny child, letting him pull his finger. Then, he looked at Ryoma. "I doubt I have anything else to tell you. If you still remember the basics of who I am, you can deduce what will happen..."
He let go of Shadow, feeling that he should leave. Not only the pain in his arm suddenly raised, making him hiss and instinctively place his hand over it, but... Kevin simply felt he had nothing else to say.
"If the groups decide to fight, Ryoma, just... please don't cross me," he finished, getting up from the bench. Then, Kevin walked away as quickly as the pain allowed him to, not caring about Ryoma's reaction or lack thereof.
Ryoma was about to say something when Kevin got up, apparently deciding they were through, and walked off. He watched the other's retreating back for a moment, thinking about what he'd just said.
"People never change," he decided, glancing down at Shadow, who only seemed distressed that the shiny blonde hair had gone away. Kevin had always had a short temper, and Kevin always would have a short temper. Ryoma just hoped it wasn't supposed to be up to him to keep the American in check - it wasn't his responsibility. But if Kevin went and screwed up human/mutant affairs worse than this, Ryoma just might be forced to find him again.
"Ugh." He stood, slinging the backpack (with Shadow in it) back around his shoulders and picking up the bag of cat food, shivering a little now that the air had cooled down in Kevin's wake. He decided he'd better head back now, before anything else happened. It wasn't as though he didn't have enough to think about on the way back.
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